Hello everyone,

     My name is Paul.  I am 37 years old and new to this forum.  I remember when I was 15 years old, and I got my first Cluster Headache in Sophomore History Class...a vivid and not so fun memory!  Since then, I have suffered from episodic cluster headaches off and on throughout the years.  I was finally diagnosed when I was 28 years old with Cluster Headaches.  I'm on the forum now because "the beast" is back...or was back.  I've had great success with it after two days thanks to you Batch!  ;D

     Like all of you, I'm always trying to figure out what cause my episodes to start.  I've narrowed it down to a combination of the following:

1.  Disruption of Sleep Pattern
2.  Stress
3.  Time change/jetlag
4.  Throw in some beer/wine
5.   Disruption of normal eating pattern

     My headaches have ranged from KIP 1, all the way to KIP 9.  Fortunately, I haven't had to go to the hospital!  For me, the pain starts behind my right eye and radiates out and up...I fell it in my teeth (especially my upper right wisdom tooth) and throughout my skull on the right side. My nostril on my right side will start running horribly when I have a bad one and so will my right eye.  Also, my stomach will feel like it is empty when I'm having my attack...anyone else get this?

    For the most part, I have just used Imitrex to treat the headaches when they are way up on the KIP scale.  I had one very bad episode when I was 28 where I was put on verapamil (only because I educated my doctor, as a GP, he was clueless about CHs) and it worked really well for me.  After 7 days on it, I was CH free!

    About a week ago, I got hit again....pretty sure it had to do with all of the factors I listed above.  I had been CH free for about 3 years and 3 months up to that point!  Damn beast came back.  My welcome back to the fun of CHs was a KIP 8, it was horrible.  Since then they haven't been that bad, but have been more frequent.  Also, up to this point, I never had CHs during the night, they were always in the morning...these nighttime ones suck!  I started getting 3-4 CHs at night that would wake me up and make it very difficult to get back to sleep. Also, once I'm up, I've been having a KIP 5-6

    So I did some reading here and came across Batch’s concoction....THANK YOU BATCH!  Yesterday was my first full day on the treatment, and I went from
   
     I'm taking 8000 IU of Vitamin D3 (4,000 in the am and 4,000 in the pm) and 4,800 mg of Fish Oil every am.  So far so good.  Thanks again Batch! ;D
    
    Hopefully this pattern will continue!  Thanks to everyone  here on the board for posting your experiences, they really have been helpful for me to understand/combat my cluster headaches!

Quote:

and I went from ______________

Dude. The suspense is killing me.

LoL...some of my text some how got cut out of my "paste".  Here's the mssing text:  "...3-4 KIP 5-6 CHs during the night to 2 KIP 1s last night.  Just woke to a little pressure, and was able to easily fall back to sleep.  This morning, I woke and started to get about a KIP 2-3, BUT after taking the fish oil and Vitamin D, gone, all gone!"

;D

Welcome Paul. Glad you've got a handle on the beast, and that the D3 is working for ya. Just a word of caution though. Our experience is that even if you avoid every single trigger you've identified, the beast can come knockin' on yoah doah. Don't be lulled to sleep thinking you've got the precautions all wrapped up, ok? And while I hope and pray the D3 regimen continues to work, we've also found CHs have a way of morphing to beat our current treatments. Those two bits of incredibly useful advice aside, you're doing great! Glad to hear it! blessings. lance